Love Me Nice
by MissTiraMissSu
Summary: Love is meant to be tender, sweet, and nice. It was not meant to be painful, convoluted and confusing. Someone should talk to God about that.
1. Love Me Deep

The night had started with a jovial air. The older members of the Scouting Legion brought snacks and wine, an impromptu gathering that coaxed out the younger members who wanted to steal sips of hard liquor or simply wanted to have a party. It was meant to be stress relief, where loosened lips could let interesting gossip slip with little concern of the repercussions. Innocent fun that Hanji Zoe took full advantage of.

Three glasses of wine later and a fourth halfway drained, she wobbled to her feet laughing at her own inside joke. Her drunken company applauded her for some reason, and she swayed to the clumsy chorus. She felt great. Long past the state of buzzed, she was deliriously drunk, the colors of the world blurring and clashing in her already poor vision. Mike was nose whistling instead of applauding. Petra laughed like a seal. Levi and Irvin competed over who had the loudest clap. Everything was wonderful. Giddiness overcame her, and the urge -and a plan- to have a little fun, or perhaps more started to take root. First, she placed her hands on the table to steady herself, then raised a hand to stop the applause at her achievement. Hiccuping a few times, Hanji spoke.

"I. Ah, lis-listen to me." She straightened up, glass in hand and pointing at the ceiling. "See, I know a thing. And so Imma try a thing." Hanji set down her glass, careful not to spill the precious liquid. A little joyful dance in place and some increased applause later, Hanji bounded back from her seat, bowing before strutting in the assumed direction of her target. Walking while intoxicated was a chore in itself, her entire body swaying in ways she had never noticed before. Either way, when she spotted a red scarf, she knew she was going in the right direction. Plopping down next to Armin, she grinned.

His curious, nervous voice piped up, somehow blurry. She would question how a voice could sound blurry later. But she had to be doing fine. She had counted her all of her fingers twice, and there were twelve, which would be more than enough. So she grabbed his collar, and drew him towards her, the confused blond assistant that she knew a certain thing about. Everything hummed around her, the energy of the entire room flowing into her, building excitement onto excitement. Her lips curled into a sly smirk.

"I know a thing."

"You... you do?" She giggled at his feeble reply. Playing dumb didn't suit him. She laughed more, nodded, then jerked him towards her, their lips crashing together.

A shocked squeak. Her grip tightened when greedy lips did not hesitate to kiss her back in the awkward and innocent fashion she had expected. The sounds that had vibrated to her very core, loud chatter that pounded her ears, fell out of existence for this very moment.

The moment consequently ripped away from her by a flying fist. Maybe a Titan swooping down from the sky decided to punish Armin. Or was a lightning bolt? The hand of God? They had been violent. Hanji blankly stared at Armin as his head smacked into the table and he clutched his bleeding nose. For some reason, it was funny. She almost laughed, until God decided to scoop her up and carry her over their shoulder.

"God, you're so strong!" Hanji squealed. As the distance between her and the bleeding boy increased, she waved, like a child, blowing kisses to him as if nothing had happened. The bright lights and stares vanished when she entered the darker hallway to the dorms, God still carrying her and hiccuping every now and then.

"God..." she began.

"Shut up..." A hiccup interrupted his sentence. "...eyes."

Hanji's eyes widened and she clapped her hands to her face.

"Levi, no! I wanted to teach him how to kiss like he should!" she wailed and wiggled, weak fists pounding on his back in protest. Eventually, she became bored with the whole affair, and kicked her legs out every now and then. "But I don't want to go to bed."

"Too fucking bad."

He kicked her room door open and tossed her on the bed. She blew an ungraceful spit bubble and laughed, her hands reaching up to grab onto whatever bits of Levi she could. He smacked her hand away and shuffled to the door,

"Where are you going, Levi Wevy?"

"'Nother drink. Need it."

"But Levi if you go then I'll be all alone and bored! Might go downstairs again."

His hand wrapped around the door knob. He could leave her. Let her sit and think about what she had done and how completely stupid it was, and why it made him punch the kid in the face for reasons that his alcoholic state had explained in full detail. And now it continued to whisper in his ear, coaxing him to close the door, turn around, and go back to her side. He allowed her fingers to hook into his shirt and drag him on top of her. She wiggled them into a more comfortable position, spreading her thighs so his legs lay between them and wrapped an arm around his neck. Another fit of giggles as he hovered over her, wobbling on his palms.

"Good, you stayed. Because I know what I want, and I want something, a thing, but it has nothing to do with the thing. But it's a thing that I would have gone for more of if you didn't stay, Levy Wevi."

"I'm God."

"God! In my bed!" That set off another set of giggles, this time shared by the both of them. He smiled down at her like the deity he was.

"Well then, God, I want a few things, but first of all; I wanna do a thing. Love me, love me deep. And I wanna kiss. I wanna kiss. Kissy kissy." Her fingers twirled in his hair. Both of her arms wrapped around his head, tugging him down towards lips that smelled like sweet wine. Alcohol made him impatient, forcing him to close the gap. Their noses bumped together, but they laughed it off before diving in again, lips tingling as the tastes of two different wines mixed, and he crept forward, pushing her down into her pillows. She broke the kiss to heave for air between more of laughter.

"You kiss better than him."

He grinned.

"Course I fucking do."

Levi's concentration turned to the crook of her neck, biting down with enough force to make her jump and the metallic taste of blood to taint his mouth. Hanji's nails dug into his back, her back arching into the jolt of enticing pain. It blurred her mind further. This wasn't enough, having him on top of her, marking her, wasn't enough. Hanji needed him to be closer, until she couldn't tell the difference between where she ended and he began. So she shoved him away.

Stumbling off the bed, Hanji ignored his annoyed stare to hook her fingers in her pants, sliding them off with a few playful wiggles of her hips. They crumpled around her shoes. They would have to go. Her twelve fingers set to work, fussing and fighting the shoelaces until each heavy boot was tossed to a random corner. Her pants were thrown in his face, but he sat up against the wall and laughed it off, wearing a satisfied grin at her little show. Pleased with his reaction and the alcohol still sparking in her system, Hanji took off her jacket and unbuttoned her shirt. They fell unceremoniously on the floor. Only one thing left. One bra strap had slipped off her shoulder already, the other joined it, then Hanji wiggled it down her hips where the rest of her clothes lay. Naked and excited, she clasped a hand over her mouth to stop the oncoming laughter, then pointed at Levi.

"Kissing is more fun naked." she said though her fit of giggles.

He didn't need anymore coaxing after that. She helped him with his boots as he grumbled through every curse she knew and more. The low thunks of boots hitting the floor almost made her laugh, but there were pants to pull off of her little God, boxers and a jacket to join her own clothes on the floor, a shirt to open as she straddled him before the need nipping at her took over and she kissed him. God was a fantastic kisser. And like everything did, it made her want to laugh. She would have, if his teeth hadn't found her unmarred shoulder, sinking in and leaving another holy mark that she would bask in later. He continued, leaning her back as his mouth trailed to her breasts, harsh bites that forced her hips to jerk against his. Warm hands cradled her sides in place of the mouth that trailed downwards, leaving more bites and bruises as they sunk lower. Her back met the sheets. Her head hung over the edge of the bed. Her body squirmed against the mouth between her legs, giving her sloppy licks and kisses, doing more than enough to make her moan.

But it wasn't enough. Shoving his head away, she sat up to kiss him again, her own taste filling her mouth as their sweaty bodies pressed together. There needed to be more. She bit into his shoulder and neck, relishing in the excitement that sparked in her again, moans that captivated her, fingernails sinking into her waist, weak and impatient thrusts of the man underneath her. That was it. That was the more she was so desperate for. Bracing herself on his shoulders, she raised herself up, wobbling onto him. Slowly, she whined as the tip slid inside, her body losing resolve as she went along, gasping at sheer exhilaration that he gave her until she lost her grip, falling back onto his lap.

"Ah, God," Hanji mumbled. Her chin rested in the cook of God's neck as his sticky fingers slid up and down her waist until they found the perfect hold.

"God, love me nice."


	2. Love Me Tender

Earl Grey. Two bags of tea instead of one, but three of them on rainy days. Four spoonfuls of sugar, but five -again- on rainy days. Stirring and accompany with humming or babbling about your plans and it was a typical Hanji morning. Armin learned this from simple observation. It was easy. What was complicated was Levi Rivaille's uncanny ability to place the correct amount of tea bags in the first place she would look no matter what day it was. The exact process of putting tea bags in the cookie jar, the fruit bowl, beside the stove... It was lost to Armin. There was no logic to it and it bothered him. Slightly.

He stirred the last spoon of sugar into the steaming tea. Armin rubbed the bridge of his nose, still aching even after Eren and Mikasa managed to shift it back into place. Despite his own pain, Hanji had to be worse off.

She had been carried upstairs in a barbaric fashion, and Levi beat Armin in more ways than one. No, it wasn't the purest of desires, and even now the fact he had even thought of it made him blush. At least he could curry her favor, not that there was a chance. The slightest possibility that he was not chosen out of drunken randomness but instead mirroring the feelings he'd been cultivating for so long. Maybe move things along.

So he had hoped.

"Don't leave me. You're warm."

Hanji's voice rasped against Armin's ears, muffled by the thick door. So she was awake. That would save him the trouble of shaking her and pleading with promises of convincing Eren to participate in her experiments. But she was talking to someone, and there was only one possibility.

"I'll be back later."

Levi.

"Promise?" There was shuffling. "You're God though, you wouldn't lie."

"Never. I'll get you some tea."

"Two bags. But you already know, because you're..." She trailed off.

"Of course, Hanji. Go back to sleep."

She agreed and the scrapes and clinks of boots and clothes forced Armin to scramble down the hallway until he was sure that Levi had snuck out of Hanji's room. Swallowing the questionable feelings that lodged in his throat, Armin knocked on the door. A croaking, annoyed voice told him to come in.

The first thing Armin noticed was the pile of clothes by the foot of her bed, no doubt smaller than it had been a few minutes ago. The second thing he noticed was the obvious smell of sweat, the perfume Hanji used when she skipped a day's bath, and what could only be Levi's cologne. The third thing he noted was that she sat up in bed, rubbing her sensitive eyes, ignoring the multitude of bites and bruises that peppered her chest, an obvious trail leading under the covers. He tensed, blushing at the suggestive marks, and approached her with the hopefully still warm tea.

"Good morning, Miss Zoe." Stilted. But a hungover Hanji was too busy groaning over her pounding head and general achiness -though he wondered if it was the alcohol that had left her so- to notice. Maybe. "I brought you some tea."

She took the cup, sniffed it, and swallowed it in a few gulps. Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, she stretched her bruised body before falling back into the bed sheets.

"Morning."

Her words were forced, agitated. She shielded her eyes from the oncoming sun, massaged her temples, and pointed at the bedside table.

"Glasses. Need them. Should have a pair in the drawer."

Armin fumbled with the knob and threw a battered pair of glasses from the other two that lay in the drawer. She cleaned them on the sheet, put them on, then looked herself over.

"I feel like death," she wailed, thrashing about in the sheets. A pair of glasses went flying out from the tangle, clattering by Armin's feet. One of the lenses had been partially popped out, and he found himself trying to shift it back into place. This could occupy him for a while, but the problem remained. How could he bring up the situation, though the fact he had eavesdropped could be left out for his benefit. Hanji would snap at him for that. But he could enjoy her now, her bitter, sullen, childish mood brought on by the effects of alcohol.

"Pass me a shirt, I need to piss."

After Hanji left the room, sans underwear (since it was too much 'work' and the shirt could be pulled down), Armin went back to fixing the frames. He gave up when the thought of why they were mangled came to mind. She had been a drunken idiot last night, but now, despite her roughness, she had some sensibility back. It wasn't much. Without the glasses to fidget with, Armin had to distract himself in other ways. Cracking open a window. Making her bed. Tidying up her notes. Then trying to read her notes, the cramped hand that was half crossed out as she made corrections.

"Armin."

He jumped. She leaned against the door frame, running one hand through her hair and a mug of something in the other.

"You can go do whatever, I'm not feeling too good."

Ginger. It filled his nose, almost stinging. Hanji sat on the edge of her bed, drinking from the oversized mug and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I mean, I'm too hungover to think of leaving the lab and you shouldn't be in here, idling forever. Go have fun."

"I'd rather stay here and-" Armin paused. "-help copy over your notes. Keep you company."

She cocked her head at that, squinting not only at his absurd request but at the intense sunlight behind him. Too obvious?

"Sure." There was a long silence filled by heavy swallows of ginger tea. "But after your drills. I'm sure as hell not going. Hangovers suck."

"Right..."

Relatively speaking, if Armin was lucky, Levi wouldn't be out there with them. He wouldn't have to look the man in the eye with his fellow Legion members stares goading him on like they had last night. All of them had reasons for wanting to punch the Corporal in the face, and last night was now one of them. Now if only he could seal out the whispers and laughs.

Once they had stopped his bleeding nose, they started to chatter. Harsh, angry words tainted by their feeling. A logic that few failed to grasp in favor of scandalous vocabulary. The rumors were nasty, poorly hidden words that caught his attention. No one knew how to hold their tongue. Hanji was in fact reasonably intoxicated, which is part of why she kissed him, not to make Levi jealous. Despite his own desires, Armin and Hanji were not dating. Neither were Hanji and Levi. Levi was by no means impotent, judging by what Armin had seen and heard this morning. It had been Levi, not him, even though he left the mess hall soon after Hanji had been dragged out, that slept with her. And it was quite obvious she had done something racy last night. Her bruised skin could confirm that.

Though there was so much more to his like of Hanji than the way she looked, it would be pointless to deny the fact he wanted to be in the same position, covered in her love bites and administering his own. A benefit that someone else had swiped by the way of brute force. Frustration jabbed at his throat and he declared it time to run a few laps.

By noon, Armin was back in Hanji's room, copying over her notes as she half slept, half tossed about mindlessly. Hanji cursed her headache. She poked the conspicuous bites on her body and hummed random songs. Too many things weighed upon his mind to pay her whining much attention. She wasn't oblivious. She was patiently waiting for the moment he would snap, demanding to know what had happened, the meaning behind that intense kiss of only a few hours ago. That she had gone to bed with the man who caused the bump in his nose without any sign of guilt or care, save for her cringing at a certain shoulder bite. That she just ignored the issue and the whispers that she had no doubt heard by now. Overthinking it or not, it made Armin's hand shaky and the words caught in his throat. How badly he wanted to let everything out, to ask her questions he might already know the answers to. But she smiled at him. Tender, loving and kind, like she always did. Would nothing change?

"I'll be back later."

Hanji waved with her foot. Somewhat satisfied with the response, Armin left the room. A conversation with God was in order.


	3. Love Me Sweet

The benefit of being himself was that everyone eventually learned how to deal with him. It also left the impression that he was a short, heartless monster that Irvin let wander the Corps. And that suited Levi just fine. He had his friends, his enemies, and his life in a place he could tolerate and maybe enjoy. And there was a specific woman that found him to be something more than just a sullen face or something to flinch at. She appreciated his cup of ginger tea, though saying nothing as she sweetened it. The kitchen was too public to discuss anything.

Later. After ignoring Irvin's messengers. After snapping and glaring at anyone stupid enough to gossip. After a long, long shower and tidying up his immaculate room. Later, when they were both more level headed and less in pain, they could talk. Sort out things that they were too old to talk about. Crushes. Drinking a bit too much. Hormones. What to do next. 'Later' taunted him with a million possibilities.

A million, irritating possibilities. However, none of them involved Armin approaching him.

"How do you feel about Hanji Zoe?"

The middle of a hallway was not the most private place to discuss, but Armin let the words tumble out anyway. Levi placed the bucket of dirty mop water on the ground. Was this Armin's attempt of being intimidating? Was he that infatuated with the idea of Hanji Zoe kissing him that he would turn into your average teenager?

"How's your nose?"

Armin's hand flew over the slight bump on his nose.

"Fine. But you still haven't answered my question."

"Do you think a kiss from a drunk woman means anything?"

"Do you think sex with a drunk woman means anything?"

He should have expected that. Levi glanced out the window. What could be said? The kiss and the sex, both of them were influenced by the thick haze of alcohol. Of the three of them, only Armin held any sort of clarity last night, and even that was being distorted by the sheer exhilaration of his crush kissing him with the same passion as a lover. Or, if Levi wanted to be haughty, the same she gave him last night. Every shred of reality and sense was watered down and smelled faintly of bleach.

"Go ask her. She should have stopped complaining by now."

Levi took up his bucket, leaving the kid in the hallway. He hated messes of all kinds. He had been furiously cleaning all day to distract himself from the mess his drinking got him into. There was holding back from bashing a mouthy Connie with his mop and avoiding Irvin with ease, though it helped that hangovers left him useless. After dumping the bucket in the courtyard, it came to mind.

Possibilities. The confusing, frightening possibility that for some god forsaken reason Hanji would pick the brat over him, Armin could talk to her about her passions, give her genuine ideas based off of what he knew and keep up with her overwhelming mind. That alone was enough discouragement in his state of uncommon worry. When was the last time he felt so childish, picking at himself like a scab? Over a girl that couldn't handle her alcohol. But he hadn't done any better. Did sex mean anything when stuck under a drunken haze? Armin's words lurked in the back of his mind, digging up unpleasant thoughts that grew with ease.

And what did he have to offer her? His usual scowl? Shit jokes? Falling asleep on her long winded speeches? Levi shook his head, knuckles blanching as he held the bucket's handle. There was a simple approach to this. Not care what she said. She would remain his friend despite her words. That would be hard. Despite his reluctance to admit it to anyone, he had punched the kid for a reason. Levi loved her; he at least felt something strong enough to warrant punching someone she kissed and punching him far harder than needed.

Hanji was Hanji. Loud, obnoxious, and overbearing. She ignored his personal space and made her own little nook instead. He allowed it for convenience, tolerated it for sanity, and grew to love it in time. Her presence and smile were constants in his life. Her babbling lulled him into peaceful, perfect slumbers with no nightmares. He learned how she took her tea, where to put the tea bags so her half awake fumbling would be reduced, and knew her sick brew. He knew of her father, the estranged blacksmith, her dead mother, and her pet dog that ran away when she was five. Her drink of choice, the spot on the balls of her feet that if you pressed just right made her coo and giggle in appreciation because they always hurt. How she could go from completely serious to joking and back again in an instant while keeping her ideals intact. A copy of her glasses prescription lay in his bedside table drawer, and a pair of back up glasses for when a drowsy Hanji would demand attention at one in the morning. Always one in the morning.

It occurred to him that later was now.

The little things normally got you farther than the big things. Paying attention got you places that sheer force could not.

Levi took note of the way her toes curled in the sheets, the deep wells they made in the fabric. The way she held her knees to her chest, forehead resting on them, jerking with every sob and hiccup. Her nails digging into her skin, the way her loose hair fell about her, a mess that he would have to fix. And she was a mess. It distressed him, seeing her like this, a curled up ball of despair for some God forsaken reason. A complete disaster.

So Levi fetched a pan of water and a rag. The first thing to do was loosen the forlorn Hanji up from her place in the bed. She offered no resistance, her knees falling away from her body to reveal red eyes, glowing with the ache of pity and guilt. Levi bit his lip, dipping the rag in the cold water to wipe away the tears staining her cheeks. She looked horrid. Beautiful all the same, but horrid.

"You look like shit."

She laughed a bit at that, sticking her neck out for the cool rag to run over her skin. He took note of the bruises and marks he had left the night before, counting them as he went along. A tinge of shame overtook him as he finished up. This was the aftermath he had wanted to avoid. A Hanji in this state took away any note of pleasure from this situation. Levi put the bowl underneath the bed, and went fishing in Hanji's untidy drawers for her brush and a rubber band. When he turned back around, she was already on the floor waiting for him to sit on the bed.

"Well? Aren't you going to ask me what happened? He told me you sent him to talk to me, Levi."

Levi ran the brush through her tangles a few times. Hanji picked at her shirt.

"Tell me then."

"He was rather heartbroken, really." Hanji rested her arms on Levi's legs. "Said he loved me. Said that he wanted to try and work something out between us and everything. But you know, the only reason I kissed him was because I knew. I knew he liked me, and I was drunk and I wanted to know how much. How much could this little kid actually like me? Kids are shallow, after all." She flinched at a particularly harsh knot. "But it wasn't nice of me, was it? Sober or drunk. I had to know. But drunk made me want to know more."

She twisted around, burying her face into his stomach, hair brush dangling from her knotted hair.

"And I kissed him just to see. God, I feel terrible. Then I slept with you, but I actually like you. I actually like you. And he didn't know. I told him after he blurted out the whole cheesy love confession like the little kid he is. But I already told you, didn't I?"

Levi picked the brush out of her hair. She clung onto him, not crying, but clinging on regardless. Placing his hand on her head, Levi stroked her hair, the panicked breaths slowly fading away as she regained control.

There was a thick silence surrounding them, a mutual agreement that neither of them wanted to break. But they had to.

"Hanji, he'll recover. And so will you."

She looked puzzled at the statement, as if it was impossible to think beyond the moment. She'd lost her perfect assistant to matters of the heart; he knew she had heard the rumors and nasty words from here as well. They didn't bother her, as far as he could tell but hurting Armin, a friend, was taking its toll on her. Levi hoisted Hanji up from her place on the floor, coaxing her up onto the bed. She crumpled into his arms, curling up into his chest without a sound.

"Oi, Hanji."

A grunt.

"You _like_ me?"

Levi cringed at the nervous crack in his voice. It made her laugh, a low, muffled giggle that became a full on outburst of joyful laughter. Clutching her stomach in delight, she continued until Levi pushed her off the bed. Then came the playful cursing of a woman on the ground who pulled herself up, flushed with laughter.

"Of course I like you. God, you sound like a teenager, hah! Who knew Levi was such a ba-"

He punched her on the arm, sending her flying back onto the ground once again. Levi laid back down, staring at the ceiling. Her tears were replaced by laughter for now. No, it wasn't perfect. He and Hanji were nothing like a fairy tale, but they had something undeniable, something sweet. Something that even though he fumed at her, he allowed her to curl against him, to kiss his cheek, his lips. To remind him that love or whatever this was, could be delightful and simple, despite the fact that he would have to suffer as her lab assistant in place of the blond. But love was sweet.


End file.
